Perry hangs on to shock McKinley

Tuesday

The Panthers claimed their biggest win of the year with Tuesday's 72-66 win over the Pups.

PERRY TWP.

In a conference as competitive and balanced as the Federal League, anybody can beat anybody on any given night.

That's something each coach in the league often reminds their team of throughout the season. They do so because of instances like what happened on Tuesday night at Perry High School. The Panthers, despite entering their Fed matchup against visiting McKinley with just a 1-5 mark inside the league, led by as many as 17 before finding enough energy to finish off the Bulldogs to claim a big, midseason triumph.

Perry grabbed a lead midway through the first quarter and never surrendered it again in its 72-66 upset win over the Pups.

"I’m just so proud of the kids," Perry coach Chad Spurgeon said. "I didn't tell them much afterwards, but I just said how evident it was that they battled. We got on the floor, we flew around and we really played hard."

Perry (6-7, 2-5 Federal League) got off to just about as good of a start as it ever could have asked for. That led to the Panthers earning a big lead, one that proved to be enough of a cushion to finish off their most impressive win of the season.

The Panthers trailed 17-15 midway through the first quarter before senior Dominic Pipero completely took over. The 5-foot-10 guard drained four 3-pointers in the opening frame, leading Perry to a 16-0 run to close the first quarter.

Those big shots, along with Perry's ability to turn McKinley (10-4, 4-3) over early on, helped the Panthers gobble up all the momentum.

Perry led 31-17 after eight minutes.

The Bulldogs finished with 14 turnovers, seven of them in the opening eight minutes.

Pipero even began the second quarter with another triple, giving Perry its largest advantage of the night at 17.

"We handled the ball and got some turnovers," Spurgeon said. "Then, Dom just went off and hit a bunch of shots. I'm just glad we didn't let those go to waste."

But McKinley slowly began to chip into the Panthers' lead before halftime. The Pups outscored Perry 15-12 in the second frame, yet still trailed by 11 at the half.

Pipero drilled yet another 3-pointer before the first-half horn and finished with 25 points at the break. In all, he made six triples and registered a game-high 29 points.

"We knew that Perry was good enough to beat anybody in the Federal League on any given night if they were making shots," McKinley coach Rick Hairston said. "We just weren't ready with giving up all those points in the first half."

The McKinley deficit quickly dipped into single digits early in the second half, though.

Back-to-back 3-pointers by McKinley's Deontae McCollum made it a 47-43 game at the 3:47 mark in the third quarter. That made it clear that Perry's work for the evening was far from being over.

The Pups cut the Panthers' lead to four on two more occasions in the third quarter, but field goals by Kasey Centeno and KJ Stokes before the end of the period bumped Perry's lead back up to eight heading into the fourth.

The Pups scored seven of the first nine points of the fourth quarter, getting it down to two before a floater by Stokes made it 57-53 Perry with just 4:23 to go.

Then, with the Panthers clinging to a 61-59 lead with about three minutes to go, they went on an 8-0 run, capped off by a tough make under the hoop by Jarrett Mercier to get the game back up to 10.

From there, Perry was able to close out the highly-entertaining affair.

"They've been exemplary in battling through tough times," Spurgeon said. "They've handled adversity, they're doing everything we want to see them doing."

Along with Pipero, Julian Jackson added 14 points for Perry while Keonte Sims chipped in with 10 more.

McKinley was led by Isaiah Smith's 18 points. Three others finished in double figures for the Pups, including Deontae McCollum (16), Andre Leavell (11) and Darryl Straughter (11).

The Bulldogs' loss comes after they buried Perry 85-55 back in early December.

"Our kids understand that with the schedule we play, if they don't go out and play the way that they need to, then they can probably lose," Hairston said. "We have to make sure we go out every night and play the right way."

Reach Joe at 330-775-1129 or joe.mitchin@indeonline.com.

On Twitter: @jmitchinINDE

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